Australia's S&P/ASX 200 returned from a long weekend with a 2.2% gain with Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index up 2.4% and New Zealand's NZX-50 up 1.4%. South Korea's Kospi Composite was up 0.3%.

The Nikkei 225 though was down 1.3% as the U.S. dollar dropped below the 100 mark against the yen, hurting Japanese exporters' competitiveness. Taiwan's main index was down 0.3%.

U.S. stock futures were recently quoted about 0.7% lower in screen trade.

In the Asian banking space, National Australia Bank was up 3.4% with Korea's KB Financial up 0.3%, China Merchants Bank up 4.1% in Hong Kong and Bank of Communications 4.4% higher, while Bank of East Asia added 8.9%.

HSBC shares were up 3.7% in Hong Kong, helped too by a plan to put up for sale office buildings in New York and Paris as well as its London headquarters.

"Clearly, there is an air of positiveness. The market is thinking that for financial stocks maybe the worst is over," said Michael Heffernan, a senior client adviser at Austock Brokers in Melbourne.

Goldman Sachs slipped 2.3% after-hours in the U.S., though the stock had marked a 4.7% regular session rise.

Its fiscal first-quarter net income rose 20% as it recovered from its first quarterly loss since going public a decade ago in the prior quarter; the bank said it would sell $5 billion of common shares to raise money to repay government capital.

Investors were now awaiting a slew of earnings reports from other big U.S. banks this week, with U.S. retail sales data on the slate later. "The retail sales data represent a test of the hypothesis that the consumer, which led the economic collapse in the fourth quarter of 2008, also is leading the recovery," said ING's Tim Condon.

There was a swift reminder of how difficult the current economic environment was: Singapore's advance estimate of first quarter gross domestic product showed a contraction of 19.7% on a seasonally adjusted and annualized basis from the previous quarter, worse than the contraction of 7.5% expected in a Dow Jones Newswires poll of economists. On-year, GDP fell 11.5%, the fastest drop since the government began compiling comparable data in 1976, versus the 8.6% decline tipped.

Some stocks in Japan were crimped by the gains in the yen. Toyota Motor was down 3.6% while Sumitomo Realty had fallen 6.9% after cutting its net profit outlook.

Mining stocks were higher in Australia with Rio Tinto adding 2.5%, but Qantas slumped 10% after it slashed its full year earnings forecast and said it would make further cuts in capacity, expenditure and jobs. It now expects profit before tax for the year to June 30 of between A$100 million and A$200 million, from its previous forecast of around A$500 million.

Airline stocks were weaker in Asia with Singapore Airlines down 3.0% and Malaysian Airline System down 1.9%; Monday, Qantas said it was no longer pursuing a maintenance joint venture with MAS.

Sellers came into technology and automotive stocks in Korea after recent gains, with Samsung Electronics off 0.3% and Hyundai Motor down 0.2%. "The biggest risk for Korean stocks is the steep climb in a short time," said Kim Seong-bong, at Samsung Securities.

Hong Kong's HSI was being led by a rise in H shares - companies incorporated in mainland China but listed in Hong Kong. The H-share index was 3.1% higher.

China's Shanghai Composite index had also turned early losses into gains, continuing the strong run in shares there after the benchmark ended at a near eight-month high Monday and breached the 250 day moving average, sometimes referred to as the bull-bear threshold. The index was up 0.2%.

Singapore's Straits Times Index was down 0.6% after the downbeat GDP data. Philippine shares were off 0.7% though Malaysia's KLCI was up 0.5%. Indonesian shares gained 0.4%.

Thai and Indian markets were shut for a holiday.

In currency markets the yen had regained some ground against the U.S. dollar and euro. The dollar was at Y99.65, from Y100.04 late in New York and an early high of Y100.43, and the euro at Y132.69, from Y133.83. The single currency was at $1.3315, from $1.3376.

Risk appetite spurred the Australian dollar higher against the U.S. dollar and the yen; it hit Y73.50, its highest level since October 14.

The Singapore dollar rose after the Monetary Authority of Singapore said it was recentering its undisclosed NEER (nominal effective exchange rate) band for the currency, but was keeping the slope and width of the band unchanged, adding there was no reason for undue weakening of the currency. Some traders had bet on a change in the slope of the currency band.

Recently the U.S. dollar was at S$1.5036, down from S$1.5140 before the MAS announcement.

Government bonds were lower in Japan before an auction of 30-year bonds, with lead futures down 0.21 at 136.49 points. The 30-year yield hit 2.250%, its highest level since late November.

Spot gold pushed up $4.35 from New York levels, to $896.95 a troy ounce.

Base metals were catching up after a long weekend with LME three-month copper adding $156 to $4,715 a metric ton with nearly 4000 lots already done, nearly five times the normal volume. Gains came as Shanghai Futures copper traded at a large premium to LME prices during the LME holiday, helped by recent data suggesting the Chinese economy was exhibiting some resilience.

Front-month Nymex crude was down 68 cents at $49.37 a barrel on Globex.

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